Here in Bogota, there are especially many motorbikes. Honestly, I hadn’t even seen such things before this trip. There are no electric bikes at all, apparently due to the cost. But there are bicycle shops on every corner. And quite advanced ones at that. There are very many. But not so many cyclists, actually.
Along the bike paths, you come across (see in one of the photos) mobile bike workshops, where you can buy not just tools, but also services.
Modern art?
It seems that all the interesting things in Bogota were exhausted after the first day of exploring the city. On TripAdvisor, the first must-see item was the Gold Museum. It started with the fact that I was not allowed in due to lack of registration for that time. A QR code for registration was hanging on the door. The museum is free. It is located on a square with public Wi-Fi. I connected, but the public Wi-Fi firewall wouldn’t let me access the website. It said, fraudsters and scams, I won’t let you follow the link. I showed the museum a screenshot, and they let me in without registration. I went through the whole museum in 10 minutes. I don’t know what people find interesting about it. Lots of gold crafts, simple and not particularly awe-inspiring. Their value lies in the fact that they were made a long time ago. That’s where the must-see museums ended. What remains is either something minor, like an art museum of a single artist (Fernando Botero), or local-historical-cultural, which you need to prepare for beforehand, or else you won’t understand anything at all.
Today I already worked all day because I couldn’t think of anything else to do here.
Everything in the city is built with the notion that some people are dishonest and untrustworthy, and the likelihood of encountering them is high. For example, in the Adidas store, it is customary to leave your backpack in a storage locker. It’s standard for there to be grilles on second-floor windows. Uber charges money before the car is dispatched. It’s surprising they haven’t started taking a prepayment at restaurants yet…
Turns out, the iPhone 13 includes a kind of repair protection against non-Apple service centers. Very interesting video. Guy bought two iPhone 13 Pros, and showed what happens when you swap the components.
This might be interesting @[589349322:2048:Alex Exler] @[558349609:2048:Alex Patsay]
What surprised me in Bogota was the abundance of dogs off-leash on the roads. The dogs didn’t seem to concern either their owners or bystanders, appearing completely predictable. My dog is still young, and I’m really afraid to let him off the leash (plus, it’s formally prohibited where we live). He might spot a hare or a squirrel, and then the owner’s shouts become secondary.
I have never run 5 km so slowly before – it took almost an hour and a half. Well okay, I was climbing 650 meters upwards the whole time. Montserrat. It offers a great view of the city.
For some reason, street corner circus acts are popular here in Bogota. In the left video, a guy is juggling (without much skill; I can almost do the same). In the second one, he’s dancing with hanging dolls (I’m not even sure if I could do that). Probably, the fact that someone pays for this means people aren’t spending their last penny on it.
Hardware
Hello from (not) sunny Colombia! Since Instagram is reportedly broken, I’ll torment you with photo reports from local Bogota restaurants. Might as well, since I have to wait for the food anyway. I ordered Udag Sambal ikan with Chinese beer, let’s see what that’s like. The beer is well above average.
Tourism here is poor, but the taste is good. All hotels are setting empty, restaurants are empty too.
If anyone has been in Colombia, in Bogota, share what there is to do, otherwise I’ll have to spend the entire weekend working in the hotel.
there is something unfair about this. T-Mobile sent me a letter stating that my data, such as my immutable SSN, might be in the hands of malefactors because T-Mobile dropped the ball on something. There’s a 99% chance that nothing will happen, but there’s still that 1% risk of identity theft – when malefactors try to take out credit in your name (it never actually causes real problems, as it’s easy to prove you didn’t borrow anything, but it’s still unpleasant). The only effective protection against this is to enable a Lock on requests to credit bureaus. We have three providers: TransUnion, Equifax, Experian. I haven’t checked the others, but just for TransUnion, it costs almost $25 a month (not just for the block, but the block itself isn’t sold separately). Maybe someone local knows something.
I don’t understand why others mess up, and I have to pay
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 